cemetery

cemetery.
1. Burial-ground, especially a large landscaped park or ground laid out expressly for the deposition or interment of the dead, not being a churchyard attached to a place of worship. The first Christian examples of cemeteries physically detached from churches were established by Protestants for two reasons: decency, because of the disgusting state of overcrowded churchyards in towns; and doctrine, because of the desire to weaken RC belief in Purgatory by sundering the living from the dead. Examples are those at Geneva (1536), Kassel (1526), Marburg (1530 and 1568), and Edinburgh (1562). During C18 several suburban walled cemeteries of limited extent were formed, in RC as well as Protestant countries, from sheer necessity (e.g. Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Dessau, Belfast, all in the 1780s and 1790s). However, Europeans had been burying in cemeteries in India in C17, and erecting monuments over their graves (e.g. Surat), and in Calcutta the South Park Street Cemetery was established in 1767, a true necropolis, with streets of fine Classical mausolea and monuments far more magnificent than anything in Europe at that time. Attempts to bring major reforms to European cities were sporadic, generally unsatisfactory, and aesthetically dreadful until, by a complex process prompted by a new sensibility forged through poetry and literature, the English landscape-garden fused with the necessity of burying the dead in decent and hygienic ways, and, as a result of the Decree of 23 Prairial, Year XII (12 June 1804), cemeteries were to be established in France outside urban limits. Brongniart was entrusted with the design of a great cemetery at Mont-Louis, east of the city of Paris, which became Père-Lachaise; this was to become world-famous and enormously influential, for nothing short of a revolution had occurred. Liverpool's St James's Cemetery was created in a disused quarry (1825–9—by Foster); Glasgow's Necropolis (1831–2) followed, and, after Asiatic Cholera arrived in 1831, London's first great garden-cemeteries were established at Kensal Green (1833), Norwood (1837), Highgate (1839), Nunhead (1840), Brompton (1840), and Abney Park (1840), all of which were landscaped and embellished with architecture. No major town or city in Europe or the USA could function properly without a cemetery or cemeteries, and many of great quality were designed. Fine examples in the USA include Mount Auburn, Boston, MA (1831—a superbly landscaped cemetery by Bigelow and others), Laurel Hill, Philadelphia, PA (1839—by Notman, again a stunning layout with an arboretum), Hollywood, Richmond, VA (1848—also by Notman, who must be regarded as one of the founding-fathers of American landscape architecture), Green-Wood, Brooklyn, NYC (from 1838—a marvellously landscaped cemetery laid out by Douglass), and Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, NY (from 1844—the apotheosis of the large landscaped cemetery, also by Douglass). However, the proliferation of monuments inhibited the maintenance of the grounds, and Downing suggested that memorials should be designed in a way that would not hinder upkeep. One of the first of the so-called ‘Lawn Cemeteries’ was created (1855) at Cincinatti, OH, by Adolphus Strauch (1822–83).

In Italy cemeteries tended to be more of the campo santo type, but very much larger than the medieval Pisan prototype. Examples were the Certosa at Bologna (1801–15), Brescia (1814–49), Verona (1828) and the superlative Staglieno, Genoa (1844–51—with its Neo-Classical galleries and Rotunda by Barabino and Resasco). C20 cemeteries include the war cemeteries established after the 1914–18 war, with contributions from Lutyens, Baker, and others; the fine Woodlands Cemetery near Stockholm by Asplund and Lewerentz (1917–41); the Slovene National Cemetery, Žale (1937–40—by Plečnik, who unquestionably created a masterpiece); the San Cataldo Cemetery, Modena (1971–6 and 1980–90— by Rossi); the Brion Cemetery, San Vito d'Altivole, near Treviso, Italy (1970–2—by Scarpa); the Woodland Cemetery, Leutkirch (1977–82—by von Branca); and the Cemetery for the Unknown, Mirasaka Sousa, Hiroshima, Japan (2001–2—by Hideki Yoshimatsu and Archipro—a moving meditation on nature, loss, and death).

2. Catacombs.

3. Consecrated enclosure for burial of the dead.

Bibliography

Architectural Review, ccxii/1270 (Dec. 2002), 42–5;
Ariès (1981);
Berresford et al. (2004);
Colvin (1991);
J. Curl (2000a, 2002c);
J. Curl (2000a, 2002c);
J. Curl (ed.) (2001);
Etlin (1984);
Loudon (1981);
Meeks (1966);
Stannard (ed.) (1975)